Jazz
Gard Nilssen Group Member, Drums
Iver Sandøy Mastering, Engineer, Mixing
Jorgen Traeen Mixing, Mastering, Engineer
Kim Hiorthoy Cover Art
Puma Mastering, Composer, Engineer, Mixing, Producer
Stian Westerhus Electronics, Guitar, Group Member
Oystein Moen Electronics, Keyboards, Group Member
Puma's third album is also their first for Rune Grammofon -- a natural enough home for any band under a Norwegian jazz rubric, perhaps, but even more understandable given band leader Stian Westerhus's solo work for the label, where exploration of electric guitar's near end points (sustained feedback shards, glitches of noise, distant textures) takes even more precedence. In his group's context those elements sometimes remain solely dominant -- it's about all there is at the start of the ten-minute long title track, but as the full trio develops the piece from scuzz into a general exultance, Puma's lineage in both free jazz landmarks and epic prog-metal both become clear. (On a song like "Knitstep," where Westerhus lets fly with a thrilling solo towards the end while the band's obsessive churn builds up and up, a near exact balancing point is the result.) The rolling power of Gard Nilssen's drumming on that song and elsewhere, such as "M.E.O.W.," fits the flow of the band's work perfectly, while Oystein Meon's electronics, if sometimes the subtlest element of the group's compositions, often adds understated texture and shading to what Westerhus and Nilssen are whipping up. He takes the lead at a couple of points, like the murky clatter of "Gaberdine Lingerie," where the guitar and drums seems like they're coming from a distant room. But they all slot in together on "Hachioji Silk Blues," the album's conclusion, feeling like a brief, melancholy tribute to something now irretrievably gone, Westerhus's solo a cleaner but still pushed to the limit shriek and Meon's organ a final horror-movie-into-hymn flourish. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi |
